The Forgotten Soldiers Summary

Classified as written by the New York Times, “The Forgotten Soldiers.” My heritage was labeled as the “Forgotten Soldiers” during the time known to mankind as the Secret War—more specific the Laotian Civil War (1953-1975)—between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government. During this heavily fought warzone, external support was aided. Among the aiding was the Special Activities Division specializing in covert operations within the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Directorate of Operations (DO)—serviced as the clandestine arm of the CIA (Careers & Internships, 2015). With this aiding, the CIA recruited the Hmong people to aid with them during this time; which became known as the “Secret War,” due to the unknown aiding of the Hmong civilians to Americans. Whether it was in the past or the present, immigration has greatly affected my heritage and my family from the forefront of the warzone to the forefront of this great nation labeled as “freedom.” …show more content…
From past generations, my grandmother with my mother, at a young age, had the experience of standing alongside thousands of Hmong civilians at Long Tieng—secret military air base created by the CIA—with little to none of hope of evacuating within a cargo aircraft in time to migrate to the land of freedom (Vang, 2015). However, with that little hope, my grandmother took the opportunity for the future of my mother. For, my family and I wouldn’t be able to taste the freedom that is held so valuable to immigrants, today, like my